Community Planning

Our goal: Build great neighborhoods.

SPUR's community planning agenda:

• Conduct neighborhood planning within a regional context. • Preserve our most important historic resources while allowing for growth and change. • Create new buildings that exemplify the highest quality architecture. • Make public spaces that people love to spend time in.

Neighborhood Planning

SPUR Report

Taking Down a Freeway to Reconnect a Neighborhood

Highway 280 and the Caltrain railyards create barriers between SoMa, Potrero Hill and Mission Bay. But San Francisco has the opportunity to advance bold new ideas to enhance both the transportation system and the public realm.

SPUR Report

The Future of Downtown San Francisco

The movement of jobs to suburban office parks is as much of a threat to the environment as residential sprawl — if not a greater one. Our best strategy is to channel more job growth to existing centers, like transit-rich downtown San Francisco.

The Future of Downtown San Jose

SPUR Report

A Downtown for Everyone

Downtown Oakland is poised to take on a more important role in the region. But the future is not guaranteed. An economic boom could stall — or take off in a way that harms the city’s character, culture and diversity. How can downtown grow while providing benefits to all?

Urbanist Article

The Future of the Berryessa BART Station

As BART arrives in Silicon Valley, San Jose has a unique chance to shape growth around its first station. Land uses that support BART ridership will be key to the success of Berryessa Station — and the future of the area around it.

Public Spaces

SPUR Report

Getting to Great Places

San Jose's ambitious General Plan imagines a dramatic shift away from suburban landscapes to “complete neighborhoods” that provide services and amenities close to homes, jobs and transit. SPUR recommends changes in policy and practice to get there.

White Paper

A Roadmap for St. James Park

Like older downtown parks throughout the country, San Jose’s St. James Park has suffered from disinvestment in recent years. SPUR recommends steps to create a renewed vision for the park through improved stewardship and governance.

SPUR Report

Secrets of San Francisco

Dozens of office buildings in San Francisco include privately owned public open spaces or “POPOS.” SPUR evaluates these spaces and lays out recommendations to improve existing POPOS and guide the development of new ones.

Piero N. Patri Fellowship

The Piero N. Patri Fellowship in Urban Design offers firsthand experience working in the urban design and planning field on a project that will have a positive impact on San Francisco and the Bay Area.

Historic Resources

SPUR Report

Historic Preservation in San Francisco

San Francisco's distinctive architecture is one of its great assets. It’s critical to protect this historic fabric while supporting growth and change in the right locations. How can the city integrate preservation into its processes for land use planning?

New Buildings

Project Review

SPUR’s Project Review Committee evaluates proposals for individual buildings in San Francisco based on their potential to enhance the vitality of city life. The committee ams to create a greater constituency for good urbanism through practical example.

White Paper

Cracking the Code

Great urban design is essential to creating sustainable, walkable cities. But some city codes undermine urban design principles. How might San Jose raise the bar? By addressing the ground rules of design within the municipal code.

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Updates and Events

After many months of work by SPUR and other housing advocates, the Housing Trust Fund , has made its way through San Francisco’s legislative process and been placed on the November ballot. We were very involved in crafting this measure, which would provide a permanent source of funding for affordable housing, encourage the creation of moderate-income housing and stimulate the production of market-rate housing. This measure is a very big deal for San Francisco, especially now that the State of California has eliminated its redevelopment agencies. Roughly half of all redevelopment funds in San Francisco went to support affordable housing. Without redevelopment, San Francisco’s capacity to produce affordable housing is severely reduced. Without a redevelopment agency, funding for affordable housing in San Francisco will plummet. Image courtesy the Mayor’s Office of Housing The Housing Trust Fund is a general fund set-aside, meaning it would dedicate a portion of San Francisco’s...

On the last weekend of April, as thousands watched, 40 giant pneumatic hammers pounded much of San Francisco’s Doyle Drive into recycled concrete and rebar. The following Monday morning, cars streamed across an elegant new viaduct over the Presidio’s Cavalry Valley.

SPUR believes that the City of Mountain View has arrived at a General Plan that performs very well on environmental attributes. The plan incorporates housing into an otherwise single-use job district and permits an increase in floor area ratio that will support job growth, reduce congestion and strengthen the community’s character.

The SPUR Project Review Committee finds the proposed project at Parcel P to be an appropriate use of the site. The dense residential development will enliven and enhance this transit-rich neighborhood.

The SPUR Project Review Committee finds this project to be a very positive additional to the Octavia Blvd corridor. It creates a strong visual presence at the prominent portal to the boulevard while fostering a positive pedestrian experience; it adds needed housing to the neighborhood; and it does so with an extraordinarily imaginative and compelling design of understated force.

Update: Mayor Ed Lee signed the Transit Center District Plan into passage on August 8, after unanimous approval by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Things are heating up again for San Francisco's Transit Center District Plan. On May 24, the SF Planning Commission voted 5-1 to certify the final draft of the environment impact report that will move the plan forward to the Board of Supervisors’ Land Use and Economic Development Committee. In addition, the commission voted to approve amendments to the general plan, planning code and zoning code that will be necessary to implement the plan. It will go before the Board of Supervisors for adoption sometime in July. SPUR has long supported this plan, recognizing its potential to transform San Francisco and the region. What Is the Transit Center District Plan? The Transit Center District consists of approximately 145 acres surrounding the new Transbay Transit Center, currently...